Guy Tries To Take A 15 Min ‘Shortcut’ Suggested By Google Maps, Gets A Lesson And A Trip Of A Lifetime
Google maps is, without doubt, an incredibly useful tool. Able to guide you precisely to that bar downtown where friends are waiting, pinpoint your hostel in a foreign city (no more taxi scams), calculate the best routes with least traffic and even provide you with timetables, recommendations and opening hours, it’s hard to imagine how we ever got anywhere without it.
However, amongst all this convenience, something has been lost. Being lost! Getting lost is, for me at least, one of life’s best opportunities for spontaneity, adventure, and the joy of the unexpected. That local you meet on the street when asking for directions, the family who take pity on the weary traveler and offer shelter for the night, the breathtaking view waiting down a tiny back road in the countryside… These kinds of potentially life-changing encounters are being missed as we eschew risk and discovery, to be guided with ruthless efficiency to our destinations by satellites in the sky.
This story proves however that there’s still hope for the technologically-enslaved romantic. Even Google gets it wrong sometimes! Driving to a campsite in Australia’s gorgeous Blue Mountains, a popular area of outstanding natural beauty near Sydney, keen off-roader Bruce decided to take up Google Maps’ offer of a 15-minute’ shortcut.’ He had supplies, fuel and a rugged off-road vehicle, so why not explore a little? “I don’t generally worry as I always travel with at least 20l of water, and a full tank of diesel, so if I’m lost it’s just a matter of time,” Bruce told Bored Panda. “But Google’s representation of back roads in Australia is a bit interesting, it tends to think there are a lot more viable roads than actually exist.”
Ultimately though, Bruce’s adventurous detour led to a fair dinkum camping trip, catching up with some old mates. “It was just a quick one-nighter as we could only really manage to get the 5 mates together for that one night,” he told us. “As soon as I’d set up, it was beers and steak with the boys. We do these trips every few months – as we’re all from different areas, it’s one way we can always meet up.”
Scroll down below to read about Bruce’s scenic ‘shortcut’ for yourself, and let us know what you think in the comments!
“So I have a reasonably heavily upgraded Ford Ranger, and when google maps told me that there’d be a quick, 15min savings while doing off road, I thought “yeah sure, let’s give it a try”. I was meeting mates to go camping for the night.”
“The road google maps took me down initially… this road hadn’t been traveled for a while D: This is in a pine plantation – hence all the felled trees.”
“After this area, I realized I might have bitten off more than I could chew due to the fact there was very limited space to turn around…. so I kept going anyway. I had about ~1000km of diesel (~550miles) left, a tent, a CB UHF radio and enough water and beer to survive a night. Cell access is available from the top of some hills.
This is in the Blue Mountains in New South Wales, Australia.”
“About 500m road leading down a mountain…. These drops are each heavily rutted. No problems. But I did realize that after this it could be troublesome going back… so onwards!”
“More ruts… There was a lot of “controlled” sliding going on, which is where you are literally sliding on the belly of your car, using the steepness to help keep you sliding, without guarantee of wheels touching the ground.”
“After the sketchyness I ended up in a bit of a rainforest. So took some photos while crossing rivers.”
“The road turned to more of this which was nice and just a scenic drive.”
“Allo there. The kangaroos here were pretty laid back and didn’t really care that I was driving up next to them.”
“Hey buddy. Apologies for the fuzzyness, the phone camera was zoomed. Come at me bro!”
“More come at me bros.”
“The one on the left decided to hop away. After this I made it to my campsite, not 15mins early but 2hrs late… It was worth the adventure anyway.”
“And this little guy gave us a visit the next day. It was 45c/113f according to my car… It felt like it. Previous day was about 38.”
There's a saying I love, 'If you don't care where you're going, you don't get lost.' As above is evidential proof.
Ford ought to pitch in and give this guy a new SUV for his next "assignment"
lol .. my fiances car has over 300,000 mls and is a ford explorer ... we should do that adventure and see if they will give us a new explorer ... lol might be fun
Load More Replies...It used to be fun getting a bit lost years ago - pre google, when all we had were maps. When touring would pick a random place to head for that day, chose a non main-road route and take various detours along the way just for the hell of it.
I still do that, I don't let technology get in the way of my desire for adventure.
Load More Replies...Ummmm yeah.... I'd be more afraid of him than any American bear
Load More Replies...Happened to us also. What was supposed to be a max 1 hour journey to a place in the mountains turned out to be 5 hours of "trying not to get the car into the river down below" kind of journey. Turns out that the road Google Maps suggested was only suitable hor humans, not for cars.
This has happened to me, returning from Porto Seguro to Barra do Choça, in Bahia, Brazil. The road was in the same bad condition and my car was still bumped by a pickup truck. Various losses
I was traveling to southwest Virginia using Google maps to get to a hotel that was literally right off I81. I used to live in the area, so knew Google was wrong to send me off an exit way before the town with the hotel, but I was curious and took it to see where it would go. The route had terrible narrow switchback roads that were only as wide as one lane on some blind curves with no guardrail at all on the cliff edge. I was, fortunately, familiar with these kinds of roads, but I can only imagine the kind of fright out-of-towners were experiencing trying to follow Google Maps! Not only that, but once we got far enough down this route, Google thought there was a road where there wasn't one and we had to find someplace to ask for directions back to town. We found a remote mountain church with a day school and they said they get people in there asking for directions all the time.
Fun fact, Google made me turn around myself in circles for 25 minutes in City center Tourcoing in France https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tourcoing. It's a real small town. I was on foot. The actual distance from A to B was 7 minutes of casual walk. ^-^ it was foggy, though, Google can't see well when it's foggy.
Once, just for fun, I used Google Maps to go from a Point A to a Point B that I knew well. The app had me taking an absurd route that involved several turns on side streets. When I go on a trip, I will use Google Maps as a guide, but I often check another on-line map just to double check. I use the street level view to make sure that I don't have to make left turns at unlighted intersections - doing that has saved me some frustration!
When hubby and I were in Northern Scotland, travelling to Oban, there was a "shortcut" on the map that took us off the highway and straight into town. Perfect. It was 10pm or later, little rainy, great time for an off road shortcut, right? We ended up going through the back road of farmers fields, the drop offs and turns were sharp and many, hard to see and we had to go super slow. Here and there our headlights would shine on eyes looking back at us from the darkness ahead. Drove through a few gates with the cow grates (to discourage the cows from leaving their fields) and kept seeing eyes. Then suddenly there were a bunch of giant Scottish horned cattle in front of us. Our shortcut literally took us through fields of animals! The cows parted and let us through. We made it to town and recounted the story to the hotel owner who laughed and laughed and laughed. Apparently we weren't the first ones to take this "shortcut"... going through it the next day in sunshine, wow! What a trip!
That has happened to my family as well, in Yellowstone. Except the drive ended up to be my dad trying not to drive the car of of a narrow road on the side of a mountain, not scenic meadows and rainforests, sadly.
Years ago when I moved to a new city, I used to go for random drives, get 'lost', and THEN get out the map and figure out where I was and how to get home. Great way to learn the city (and places in it!).
I have started the habit of opening up the map when I use Google because there are times that it has wanted to send me out of my way to get somewhere that it ends up is essentially a block away.
Great! Should have included a before and after picture of new truck to show how much personality it acquired. That's one way to gauge a shortcuts worth and cost.
Yep google maps.. Since I pretty much use it everytime I go somewhere unknown. I know the pain of being misled by google maps.. Google map suggest me to take a road that only be able tp get passed by motorcycle instead of cars.. Or took me to pass a ricefield that have this tiny road that only able to be used by one car and do you know how nerve wracking it is when there is a tractor coming from the other direction was? :'(
Amazing! I'd love to make such a shortcut! But my not-so-all-terrainy car would not approve :D
Aww wow that's one trip I'd be happy to get lost in! It looks amazing, I'd jump on a plane and head over there with Google maps and hopefully get lost too 😁
Ok, but on the longer, safer route it clearly says 'g******g'. Who wouldn't try to avoid that ? :D
the best road trips involve a bit of spontanaity! i take my mom a lot of places, and they rarely start at point A and end at point B without a few accidental side trips. commonly uttered is "well, you know when you get in a vehicle with me, it's always an adventure!" some of our best outings have been getting lost (yes, even with gps) or re-directed!
The fact that this was ever published makes me realize...people live very boring lives. Man takes detour in wilderness with tons of supplies. OMFG THAT'S AMAZIIIIIING
LOL google maps has screwed me a few times as well. Sent me off to tim buck two!
There's a saying I love, 'If you don't care where you're going, you don't get lost.' As above is evidential proof.
Ford ought to pitch in and give this guy a new SUV for his next "assignment"
lol .. my fiances car has over 300,000 mls and is a ford explorer ... we should do that adventure and see if they will give us a new explorer ... lol might be fun
Load More Replies...It used to be fun getting a bit lost years ago - pre google, when all we had were maps. When touring would pick a random place to head for that day, chose a non main-road route and take various detours along the way just for the hell of it.
I still do that, I don't let technology get in the way of my desire for adventure.
Load More Replies...Ummmm yeah.... I'd be more afraid of him than any American bear
Load More Replies...Happened to us also. What was supposed to be a max 1 hour journey to a place in the mountains turned out to be 5 hours of "trying not to get the car into the river down below" kind of journey. Turns out that the road Google Maps suggested was only suitable hor humans, not for cars.
This has happened to me, returning from Porto Seguro to Barra do Choça, in Bahia, Brazil. The road was in the same bad condition and my car was still bumped by a pickup truck. Various losses
I was traveling to southwest Virginia using Google maps to get to a hotel that was literally right off I81. I used to live in the area, so knew Google was wrong to send me off an exit way before the town with the hotel, but I was curious and took it to see where it would go. The route had terrible narrow switchback roads that were only as wide as one lane on some blind curves with no guardrail at all on the cliff edge. I was, fortunately, familiar with these kinds of roads, but I can only imagine the kind of fright out-of-towners were experiencing trying to follow Google Maps! Not only that, but once we got far enough down this route, Google thought there was a road where there wasn't one and we had to find someplace to ask for directions back to town. We found a remote mountain church with a day school and they said they get people in there asking for directions all the time.
Fun fact, Google made me turn around myself in circles for 25 minutes in City center Tourcoing in France https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tourcoing. It's a real small town. I was on foot. The actual distance from A to B was 7 minutes of casual walk. ^-^ it was foggy, though, Google can't see well when it's foggy.
Once, just for fun, I used Google Maps to go from a Point A to a Point B that I knew well. The app had me taking an absurd route that involved several turns on side streets. When I go on a trip, I will use Google Maps as a guide, but I often check another on-line map just to double check. I use the street level view to make sure that I don't have to make left turns at unlighted intersections - doing that has saved me some frustration!
When hubby and I were in Northern Scotland, travelling to Oban, there was a "shortcut" on the map that took us off the highway and straight into town. Perfect. It was 10pm or later, little rainy, great time for an off road shortcut, right? We ended up going through the back road of farmers fields, the drop offs and turns were sharp and many, hard to see and we had to go super slow. Here and there our headlights would shine on eyes looking back at us from the darkness ahead. Drove through a few gates with the cow grates (to discourage the cows from leaving their fields) and kept seeing eyes. Then suddenly there were a bunch of giant Scottish horned cattle in front of us. Our shortcut literally took us through fields of animals! The cows parted and let us through. We made it to town and recounted the story to the hotel owner who laughed and laughed and laughed. Apparently we weren't the first ones to take this "shortcut"... going through it the next day in sunshine, wow! What a trip!
That has happened to my family as well, in Yellowstone. Except the drive ended up to be my dad trying not to drive the car of of a narrow road on the side of a mountain, not scenic meadows and rainforests, sadly.
Years ago when I moved to a new city, I used to go for random drives, get 'lost', and THEN get out the map and figure out where I was and how to get home. Great way to learn the city (and places in it!).
I have started the habit of opening up the map when I use Google because there are times that it has wanted to send me out of my way to get somewhere that it ends up is essentially a block away.
Great! Should have included a before and after picture of new truck to show how much personality it acquired. That's one way to gauge a shortcuts worth and cost.
Yep google maps.. Since I pretty much use it everytime I go somewhere unknown. I know the pain of being misled by google maps.. Google map suggest me to take a road that only be able tp get passed by motorcycle instead of cars.. Or took me to pass a ricefield that have this tiny road that only able to be used by one car and do you know how nerve wracking it is when there is a tractor coming from the other direction was? :'(
Amazing! I'd love to make such a shortcut! But my not-so-all-terrainy car would not approve :D
Aww wow that's one trip I'd be happy to get lost in! It looks amazing, I'd jump on a plane and head over there with Google maps and hopefully get lost too 😁
Ok, but on the longer, safer route it clearly says 'g******g'. Who wouldn't try to avoid that ? :D
the best road trips involve a bit of spontanaity! i take my mom a lot of places, and they rarely start at point A and end at point B without a few accidental side trips. commonly uttered is "well, you know when you get in a vehicle with me, it's always an adventure!" some of our best outings have been getting lost (yes, even with gps) or re-directed!
The fact that this was ever published makes me realize...people live very boring lives. Man takes detour in wilderness with tons of supplies. OMFG THAT'S AMAZIIIIIING
LOL google maps has screwed me a few times as well. Sent me off to tim buck two!
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